A Winter's Tale
by Mall Rat Matt
Summary: Mega is up to his usual tricks as winter comes to Tribeworld, while old feelings resurface in the mall. One-shot Trudy/Jay pairing, written for the Tribe Revival Secret Santa event 2010.


Original challenge:

Username: DarkAvenger  
Characters: Amber, Trudy, Jay, Brady, Bray Jr.  
Pairing: Trudy/Jay  
Props: (Three items that should be in the fic) Candy cane, mistletoe, and teddy bear  
Words/ Sentences: (Two or three words or sentences that should be in the fic): "We're under the mistletoe", "Ever seen Santa Claus Conquers the Martians?"  
Set: (Is it set in the Tribe world or the real world): Tribeworld 

Trudging through the snow, Trudy sighed, once again wishing her coat had a hood like Amber's. Walking on the other side of Jay, to her right, her friend's face was buried deep in her cowl, with only her mouth occasionally visible when the wind tried to tug at the heavy material, lips curled into a frown. And well they might, after this morning. The meeting with Mega had not gone well, though Trudy hadn't realised quite how bad things were until Jay explained it to her afterwards; she was not as skilled in politics as the other two. In truth she shouldn't have been there at all, as it was a meeting for the tribe leaders. Not that the Mallrats had leaders as such, but Mega expected Amber and Jay, and had been irritated at her presence. The Techno was irritated at anything that deviated from how he thought things should be, which meant he was irritated a lot of the time. Despite that, she had been determined to attend. She was sick of finding everything out second hand like one of the kids, and on top of that it was like Jay and Amber had no time for her since they had got together. She wouldn't go so far as to say she was jealous of the time they spent together, even though her own split with Jay was still fresh; she wouldn't quite go that far, but if nothing else she would remind them she existed! At least, that had been the plan. Even now they weren't walking as a group of three, rather as a one and a two, with Jay and Amber always that step further away, arm in arm. She sighed again, and brushed away the snowflakes that had settled on top of her head.

'I can't believe we walked straight into that!' Amber said at last. Her face was hidden again, but her hood moved as if she were shaking her head vigorously inside it, and as she walked she kicked up the snow around her a little more forcefully than was necessary, almost sulkily.

'You couldn't have known,' Jay replied soothingly, squeezing her shoulder. Trudy stifled a grimace, then let it out anyway when she realised neither of them was paying her any notice. 'He probably had it all planned out before we arrived,' Jay continued. 'You know how sneaky he is.' Trudy had to agree. She may not know politics but she knew Mega, and what he had done was very sneaky indeed. She could not remember the last time it had snowed in the city, and likely some of the younger kids had never even seen it, but after two days of it Mega had certainly seen how to use the situation to his advantage, summoning the tribe leaders to one of his "council meetings", plying them with food and drink and suggesting a three day holiday from work parties for Christmas. It had seemed a wonderful idea to her, but of course it was too good to be true. Jay and Amber pointed out the obvious problems. What would happen if there was a power failure? What if a dispute needed settling? Like it or not, Mega's regime was certainly efficient at keeping things in order. By that time, however, the tribe leaders were already sold on the idea, and Amber as President had the final say. How could she refuse? Of course if anything did go wrong, Amber would now bear the brunt of any bad feeling, while if things went smoothly Mega would bask in the glory. Not to mention an official holiday would further legitimise his work parties when they started up again after the three days. Yes, he had been very sneaky indeed.

Amber shook her head, but seemed to take comfort from Jay, and the rest of the walk back to the mall was a jollier affair, from exclamations at the snow, to jokes about Christmas, to delight at seeing children playing together rather than fighting as they passed by various groups on the way. One kid had even found a sledge from somewhere, while others had cottoned on and were bringing out cupboard doors and tea trays or anything they could find to make their own. For something that must have been alien to some of them, they certainly adapted well enough!

The mall itself looked something of an ice fortress as they approached it, standing tall in the snow with its white walls and icicles hanging from the sign above the entrance. In fact she was so engrossed by the sight of it that she failed to notice the ice on the ramp leading to the grille, where feet had trampled the snow to slush that had frozen overnight. Her feet flew out from underneath her as soon as they touched it and a high-pitched noise escaped from her mouth as she slipped, but halfway to the ground she stopped, caught. By Jay. Their eyes met as she looked up at him, one arm around her waist to support her and his free hand holding one of hers. He looked as surprised as she felt! Unable to convince her limbs to move, all she could do was lie there staring at him, and it appeared he could only do the same. In the end she suspected it was the colour rising in her cheeks as the seconds ticked by that finally pulled him to his senses and her to her feet.

'Thanks,' she said, a touch too breathily, and the world seemed to turn at full speed again, the tension broken. Or nearly so; glancing at Amber she noted that her friend quickly suppressed a frown before ostentatiously linking arms with Jay and carrying on into the mall. Jay himself half turned his head to look at her before being pulled into conversation, laughing at whatever it was Amber had said. Trudy shook her head ruefully and allowed them a few steps before following. She knew she still had feelings for Jay; she couldn't just turn them off, even though part of her wanted to be able to. But part of her didn't, and if he still had feelings for her too…No. She couldn't allow herself to think along those lines. She might decide to act on those thoughts, and that would be like stumbling blindfolded through a minefield. Instead she followed meekly behind, and tried not to think about how his arm had felt around her waist.

Thoughts of Jay were instantly swept out of her mind as she entered the mall and saw Brady playing in the entrance hall. Her daughter was pushing Bray around in circles in a toy car, and thoroughly enjoying herself from the look of things. Trudy smiled. Seeing the three older Mallrats come inside, Brady pushed the car through one more circuit before coming towards them with it, making siren noises at the top of her voice. Inside poor Bray looked half delighted and half petrified, but on seeing his mother he giggled and flapped his arms out of the windows excitedly.

'We're Locos!' Brady cried, and made the siren noise again, which set Bray off giggling even more. Trudy's smile slipped momentarily.

'That's nice!' she lied, wondering who had been talking to Brady about the Locos.

'This Loco needs his rest!' Amber announced, picking her son up out of the car. Bray clutched the folds of her coat with his tiny hands as she hoisted him up. 'And we need to tell the others what happened at the meeting,' she added to Jay – specifically to Jay, not to Trudy. 'Come on.' She headed further into the mall without looking back, and Jay flashed a quick apologetic smile to Trudy before following.

'Why don't we go find you something new to play with?' Trudy said, smiling down to Brady and ignoring Amber's snub. Something that doesn't involve Locos, she decided, taking Brady's hand and walking her back to their room.

Mega's announcement of a Christmas holiday brought mixed reactions in the mall. While the older tribe members understood the problems Amber and Jay had pointed out, the younger ones were excited. In truth despite the problems some of the older ones were excited too, and since there was nothing to be done about it while Mega still ruled, it was decided that the Mallrats might as well celebrate Christmas too. A huge artificial tree, its branches slightly skewed from years in storage, was pulled down from the holding area, along with a number of boxes of dusty decorations, and a sound system was set up downstairs, blasting all the old festive tunes around the building. Trudy listened to them from her room, tapping her foot and occasionally singing snatches of them for Brady, who clapped along in time. She had found a teddy bear in among the decorations and had given it to her daughter for Christmas. While she was sitting on her bed, watching Brady dress it up in baby clothes and thinking how much more wholesome it was than playing Locos – she had yet to discover who had planted that idea in her little girl's head – a knock on the doorframe announced a visitor. It was Jay, standing there looking at her with a conflicted expression on his face. After a few moments he averted his eyes and smiled at Brady instead.

'Hey Brady, look what I've brought you!' he said, waving a small box in the air. It looked like a DVD case. 'Ever seen Santa Claus Conquers the Martians?' Brady squealed with excitement and dropped the bear, bounding from the bed to jump up and down in front of Jay, trying to grab the case. Jay laughed and gave it to her. 'Why don't you go find Jack and see if he'll put it on for you?' Brady laughed and ran out of the room without looking back, while Trudy sighed at the abandoned teddy.

'Should she be watching that?' she complained, though half-heartedly.

'It's a classic!' Jay shrugged. 'And besides, I wanted to talk to you in private. About earlier.'

'Does Amber know you're here?' she asked carefully, gesturing for him to sit on the other end of the bed. He made no move to do so, so she stood up instead.

'Amber was…upset,' he said, skirting around her question with what she expected was an understatement. 'She says you've been giving us looks.' So she had noticed after all; she would have to be more careful in future. 'And that there was no reason for you to be at the meeting today. She thinks…she thinks you're trying to get me back.' He looked at her for a while, expecting her to say something. 'Are you?' he added, when it became clear that she wasn't going to.

She laughed, though there was no humour in it. She had imagined this moment several times since she and Jay had split up, but she knew that this couldn't happen. 'No,' she said, reluctantly. Very reluctantly. 'I'm not, Jay.'

'Oh,' he said simply, with a touch of disappointment. He shifted his feet, but didn't move from the doorway. 'Didn't you…feel anything before? Outside the mall? Because…because I think I did.'

She sighed and moved towards him, stopping a short distance away. She didn't want to encourage him, but she couldn't lie to him either. 'Of course I did, Jay,' she explained. 'But we can't do anything about it, not now.' In reply he reached out and took hold of her hand, pulling her, gently but firmly enough to take those last two steps towards him, where he suddenly smiled and looked upwards.

'We're under the mistletoe,' he said softly.

She looked up and saw it, hanging above the door. Somebody had been very thorough with their decorating, she noted. Rolling her eyes, she rose onto her toes and gave Jay a peck on the cheek to emphasise what she had told him, then opened her mouth to wish him a happy Christmas. He intercepted her, however, closing his mouth around hers to cut her off. There was a brief moment of startlement on her part, before she found herself unable to fight her feelings any longer, returning the kiss.

Abruptly she realised where they were, standing in her doorway where anybody could come across them. Breaking away to arm's length once again, she tried to regain her composure. 'We can't do that,' she said. 'Not here.' A spark of guilt flashed through her, but she stifled it. This might be her last chance with Jay, and that kiss was too fresh in her mind to worry much about Amber.

'Go up to the roof,' Jay told her. 'I'll join you in a little while.' He smiled at her, a full grin that lit up his face, then he was gone, marching off down the corridor. Laughing in surprised delight, she smartened herself up in the mirror before hurrying out.

To get to the stairs that led up to the roof, she had to pass through the main hall downstairs, where everybody was busy getting into the party mood. She shared a smile and a joke with those who stopped her, but only briefly before moving on again. That is until she got to the tree. Standing tall beside the phoenix fountain, it was now fully decorated and an impressive sight, though that was not what made her stop dead in front of it. Standing there was Amber, holding Bray up to look at the decorations. His little hand closed around a candy cane hanging from one of the branches and he shook it, causing the bells further along the branch to tinkle. That was when Amber turned around and saw her. Trudy flinched, but gave what she hoped was a friendly smile and a nod before walking briskly on. Amber gave her a suspicious look before freeing the candy cane from Bray's grasp and walking off in the opposite direction.

Trudy felt less sure of herself now than she had in her room but decided to press on, knowing that if she stopped now she would lose her bottle completely. It wasn't until she hurried up the back stairs and opened the door onto the roof that she paused and allowed herself a small sigh of relief that turned into a shiver as she stepped out into the snow. It was getting dark now, and the snow shone a pale white in the streetlights. Moving to the edge of the roof she watched the flakes fall silently over the city and smiled. It was beautiful.

'Trudy?'

She turned around to see Jay standing at the door, the line of her footprints already half-covered in snow between them. He walked out towards her, making fresh impressions deeper than her own, but stopped short of reaching her. She was suddenly aware of the sad look on his face. Amber had spoken to him.

'You were right, Trudy,' he said, reaching out gingerly to take her hands. 'Maybe I've been too hasty.'

'What do you mean?' she said quietly, knowing exactly what he meant.

'What we had…it was great,' he explained. 'But I should have listened to you earlier. Maybe we just weren't meant to be. You…you deserve someone better, and I…' he paused for a moment. 'Amber and I share the same dreams for the future,' he continued. 'That'll always be important to me, to both of us, and I can't just let that go. I'm sorry. I've handled this badly, and you have every right to be angry with me. I'll understand if you never want to speak to me again.'

Trudy sighed. Were those his words, or Amber's? 'It's fine, Jay,' she said. It wasn't fine. It was anything but fine, but she couldn't face an argument, and they had both made a bad call on this one. Besides, she could hardly go round avoiding him for the rest of her life. The mall was a big place, but not that big. She would just have to accept things – again – and carry on as she had been doing until today. And so would he. 'Just go back downstairs,' she added. Just because she was resigned to the situation did not mean she had to face him right here and now. He nodded in understanding and let her hands drop. Instead of watching him leave she turned to stare at the snow over the city once more. She wasn't sure how long she stood there but when she turned around again the snow had filled in Jay's footprints as if he had never been there.

With a rueful smile she shook her head, scattering snowflakes from her hair as she did so. She was disappointed, but not devastated. Deep down she had known that earlier with Jay, like Mega's holiday, had been too good to be true, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it for what it was. The same with Christmas. She decided to go back downstairs and enjoy herself with the rest of her tribe. Besides, she had seen Salene earlier, wrapping up a winter coat with a proper hood, and she was sure the tag had had her name on it.


End file.
